Forest Home Historic District

Forest Home is a compact hamlet on both sides of Fall Creek, just east of Ithaca and Cornell University, and its core is preserved as a historic district. Originally called Free Hollow, it grew in the second quarter of the nineteenth century around mills powered by the creek, including grist, woolen, knitting and paper mills. Workers lived in small Federal and Greek Revival cottages, and several mill buildings were later converted to homes. Remains of the Empire and Red Grist Mills survive. As the mills declined by the 1890s, the hamlet became a favored home for Cornell agricultural college professors, and dozens of Queen Anne and Colonial Revival style houses went up, many built by contractor William McElwee, Sr. The district also includes the 1915 Forest Home Chapel, a 1921 school, bridges dating from 1904 and 1909, the stone-clad Sackett Bridge, and a 1913 concrete dam. In all, 81 resources contribute to its character.